Defining and redefining the history and future of poker

Social Costs

Cost of Crime/Jail

Costs to taxpayers

According to a 2008 study published by Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron, the annual savings on enforcement and incarceration costs from the legalization of drugs would amount to roughly $41.3 billion, with $25.7 billion being saved among the states and over $15.6 billion accrued for the federal government. Miron further estimated at least $46.7 billion in tax revenue based on rates comparable to those on tobacco and alcohol ($8.7 billion from marijuana, $32.6 billion from cocaine and heroin, remainder from other drugs).[112]

No province-wide homeless count has ever been conducted. So researchers have cobbled together province-wide estimates. In late 2007, a researcher working for the New Democratic Party solicited numbers from every homeless shelter in the province, then compiled those figures to reach a province-wide total of 10,000 homeless.

The aforementioned SFU study found that it costs at least $55,000 a year to service a homeless person on the streets. A more comprehensive estimate conducted for the Calgary Homeless Foundation concluded that the total cost was $135,000 per person, per year.

Research in Canada and the United States has shown conclusively that homelessness is cheaper to fix than it is to ignore.

In a 2005 study comparing four Canadian cities, Steve Pomeroy estimated that it costs $66,000 to $120,000 per person per year for institutional responses to homelessness (e.g. prison, psychiatric hospitals) as compared with $13,000 to $18,000 for supportive housing.

In a 2006 study, Simon Fraser University estimated it costs $55,000 per person per year to leave someone homeless in British Columbia versus a housing and support cost of $37,000.

In 2007, the Calgary Homeless Foundation estimated that, on average, chronically homeless people consume $134,000 per person per year. Under their 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness, the Foundation has been able to provide housing and support to chronically homeless people for $10,000 to $25,000 per person per year